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Landmarks in History of Gay Rights, Found and Lost

By David W. Dunlap June 27, 2013 11:47 amJune 27, 2013 11:47 am

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A passer-by read the new plaque at the Church of the Village, Seventh Avenue and 13th Street, noting that it was the birthplace of Pflag (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) in 1973.Credit David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

A year ago, if the old Portofino at 206 Thompson Street in Greenwich Village was remembered at all, it would have been as the restaurant where Elaine Kaufman cut her teeth in the early 1960s, before opening her own place uptown.

This year, now the Malt House, it is a landmark in American history — minor, to be sure, but a landmark all the same. The case of United States v. Windsor, which culminated on Wednesday when the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, can be traced to an evening in 1963 when Edith S. Windsor met Thea Clara Spyer over dinner at Portofino. After half a lifetime together, they were married in 2007.

The rediscovery of Portofino is a reminder that social landmarks don’t make their significance readily apparent. A bit of context is often needed to appreciate the triumphs, disasters and dramas that have played out in these buildings.

Bishop Alfred Johnson, who leads the church, said he was pleased to have the plaque, as a sign that the congregation is as welcoming as it was 40 years ago. “The legacy has continued,” he said.

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Credit Michael Henry Adams

(Not every church feels that way. In recent weeks, a sign at the Atlah World Missionary Church, Malcolm X Boulevard and West 123rd Street, declared: “Never in the history of America did a president make defying God’s word public policy. Lev. 18:22.” That is the verse of Leviticus translated as, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” The Rev. James David Manning, the chief pastor at Atlah, said in a phone interview that the message referred to President Obama’s support of gay rights and same-sex marriage. Acknowledging that the sign had been criticized, Mr. Manning asked, “Since when is the word of God hate speech?”)

Sometimes, landmarks come to light just long enough for admirers to bid farewell. The Bell Center of the Williams Institutional Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and 131st Street, turned out to have been the Ubangi Club in the 1930s, a popular destination for gay audiences. It was demolished this year to make way for apartments and a new church.

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In 2012, preservationists hoped to save 186 Spring Street (left) for its history as a home and meeting place of gay rights advocates. It was demolished, however.Credit David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

And how many people knew that a nondescript building at 186 Spring Street was a home and meeting place of gay-rights advocates in the early ’70s? The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation hoped to secure landmark status for the structure, to no avail. It was torn down to accommodate a new residential development. An abutting building was also to be razed.

Paradoxically, the demolition has turned out to be an obstruction to development. A lender, Silo Capital, asserted in a lawsuit against the developer, Nordica SoHo, that 186 Spring was the collateral for its $5.6 million loan and that the demolition violated the terms of the mortgage.

In its complaint, Silo stated that it was seeking an injunction “to prevent borrower and anyone else acting on its behalf from demolishing the building which still exists on the property in order to protect the collateral that secures the loan.” Nordica SoHo no longer has a listed telephone number.

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A rainbow flag still hangs above the shuttered Rawhide bar in Chelsea.Credit David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

Not every disappearance involves demolition. The gay bar Rawhide, on Eighth Avenue and West 21st Street, closed in March after 34 years, priced out of the space. J. P. Sutro, a broker at Lee & Associates, which is marketing the 1,320-square-foot storefront, said most inquiries are coming from local restaurants. “Almost all prospective tenants know about Rawhide and their legacy,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Being in business for 34 years in N.Y.C. is an accomplishment that only few can brag about.”

“New York is actually more of a verb than a noun,” he said, “because it’s engaged in an endless evolution of building, tearing down and rebuilding. Before Rawhide was a bar, it was a candy store. In a few dozen coats of paint, it will probably be a bar again. The great and terrible fact of this city is that as soon as you fall in love with something here, it breaks your heart by becoming something else.”

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After 34 years, the Rawhide bar closed in Chelsea.Credit Jonathan Hollingsworth

A version of this article appears in print on 06/28/2013, on page A22 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Landmarks in History of Gay Rights, Found and Lost .

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